Ethical and Legal Issues in Magazines
Ethical and legal issues
According to D. E. Summer and S. Rhoades in Magazines: a complete guide to the industry; magazines face the same legal and ethical issues than newspapers: “[…] plagiarism, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, editorial bias, and inaccuracy”[1]. Indeed, there are some limits to what a journalist can write, an editor can publish, a photographer can photograph, and a designer can design. Magazines go sometimes beyond the ethical or legal bounds. All these issues are parts of the decision-making process that magazines have to handle.
□ Ethical issues
It is a tough decision to run an article or not when it comes to an ethical issue. Magazines writers face dilemmas. On one hand they are “[…] the public watchdog, the guardian of the public’s right to know, the seeker of truth […]”[2] but on the other hand they are confronted to ethical issues.
Delicate topics like wars, politic events/scandals, environmental catastrophes, disease etc. raise some ethical issues to magazines’ writers even though the first principle is journalism is accuracy. “Every story should be factual and factually correct. There is no place for plagiarism and no place for fiction in a news story.”[3] However journalists still plagiarize or create false stories as Janet Cooke did with her “Jimmy” story in 1980 for the Washington Post or like the famous Glass who made up six stories and some parts in twenty one others.
In all the cases, editors are also responsible for checking the sources of information, as they have the last word, they should be aware of what their writers write, they risks their jobs as well as the writers do. They stake the magazine’s reputation. Moreover, society has placed another pressure on traditional media in general, as information have become easily accessible on internet and they have to deal with “private journalists” such has bloggers etc who are not always aware of ethical or legal issues.
According to the Preamble of NPPA Code of
According to D. E. Summer and S. Rhoades in Magazines: a complete guide to the industry; magazines face the same legal and ethical issues than newspapers: “[…] plagiarism, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, editorial bias, and inaccuracy”[1]. Indeed, there are some limits to what a journalist can write, an editor can publish, a photographer can photograph, and a designer can design. Magazines go sometimes beyond the ethical or legal bounds. All these issues are parts of the decision-making process that magazines have to handle.
□ Ethical issues
It is a tough decision to run an article or not when it comes to an ethical issue. Magazines writers face dilemmas. On one hand they are “[…] the public watchdog, the guardian of the public’s right to know, the seeker of truth […]”[2] but on the other hand they are confronted to ethical issues.
Delicate topics like wars, politic events/scandals, environmental catastrophes, disease etc. raise some ethical issues to magazines’ writers even though the first principle is journalism is accuracy. “Every story should be factual and factually correct. There is no place for plagiarism and no place for fiction in a news story.”[3] However journalists still plagiarize or create false stories as Janet Cooke did with her “Jimmy” story in 1980 for the Washington Post or like the famous Glass who made up six stories and some parts in twenty one others.
In all the cases, editors are also responsible for checking the sources of information, as they have the last word, they should be aware of what their writers write, they risks their jobs as well as the writers do. They stake the magazine’s reputation. Moreover, society has placed another pressure on traditional media in general, as information have become easily accessible on internet and they have to deal with “private journalists” such has bloggers etc who are not always aware of ethical or legal issues.
According to the Preamble of NPPA Code of
Bibliography: Cnet news: Pictures that lie, Sept. 11, 2006 http://news.cnet.com/2300-1026_3-6033210-1.html?tag=mncol Debonair Magazine: The Most Controversial Ads in Fashion History, Dec 12, 2007 http://www.debonairmag.com/the-most-controversial-ads-in-fashion-history